IRS WORKERS RALLY AGAINST CUTS

Sequestration hurts nation’s bottom line,
protesters point out

Is the federal government shooting itself in the foot by sequestering the Internal Revenue Service? Some of the people who work at the agency seem to think so.

About 20 San Diego IRS employees spent their lunch break Thursday demonstrating outside the federal building on Front Street. They want San Diegans to encourage their legislators to replace the $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration with a more balanced approach. IRS employees — like other civilian federal workers — are looking at five to seven unpaid days through the end of the fiscal year. They say losing those workdays will mean a delay in important services such as issuing tax refunds, pursuing those who skimp on their taxes, and processing revenue to the Treasury.

“We are the No. 1 revenue source for the government, and if you don’t have people collecting the money, how will government run?” said Garrett Downing, a revenue officer based in San Marcos. “It’s unfortunate we’re one of the most-hated three-letter agencies in the government, but ... think of the IRS as a business, we’re generating income. And if there’s no income coming in, then all these other three-letter agencies, government essentially, can’t work.”

The IRS, with 200 employees in San Diego, is already in a hiring freeze, but cuts that began March 1 will cause more reductions. Commissioner Steven Miller wrote in a memo to IRS employees that grants, travel, training, facilities and supplies would be reduced. However, the biggest reduction would come in employee furloughs because that is the largest expense, he wrote. A midrange entry salary for a San Diego IRS worker is $51,617.

Malcolm Gettmann, a revenue officer in San Diego who is the president of the local National Treasury Employees Union, which organized the demonstration, said the IRS brings in 93 percent of the Treasury’s revenue. He said the sequestration cuts could delay refund processing, as well as other expenditures for public services. He noted that millions of dollars in federal aid that came to San Diego County during the 2007 wildfires came from money the IRS collected.

“It has to be a balanced approach,” Gettmann said. “When you stop the Internal Revenue Service from working, you’re literally cutting off your revenue stream.”

Sequestration began March 1 after President Barack Obama and Congress could not agree on specific budget cuts. If all the reductions go through, the sequester would mean about $1.2 trillion in cuts over 10 years, about 2.6 percent of the federal budget.